CHAPTER 1Mama and Her Bank Account For as long as I could remember, the small cottage on Castro Street had been home. The familiar background was there; Mama, Papa, my only brother, Nels. There was my sister Christine, closest to me in age, yet ever secret and withdrawn—and the littlest sister, Dagmar. There, too, came the Aunts, Mama's four sisters. Aunt Jenny, who was the oldest and the bossiest; Aunt Sigrid; Aunt Marta; and our maiden Aunt,Trina. The Aunts' old bachelor uncle, my Great-uncle Chris—the “blackNorwegian”—came with his great impatience, his shouting and stamping. And brought mystery and excitement to our humdrum days. But the first awareness was of Mama. I remember that every Saturday night Mama would sit down by the scrubbed kitchen table and with much wrinkling of usuall…